Christmas

The boys had a fun Christmas in Richfield. This was our last Christmas in Richfield since Mom and Dad retired and moved to Payson. After 26 years in this house, they are selling it and looking to buy or build a house in the area. I'm sad to see the house go, and will miss weekend get-aways to Richfield, but it is so nice to have them close by.

It took them a while to open everything and was a mess after!

Josh got a Green Bay coat from Grammy and Grampy.

Despite all the new things Connor had to play with, he was more interested in unloading stuff in Grandma's cupboards.

Grampy sent Josh and Gary this Nerf gun that's almost as big as Josh. It's funny to watch Josh waiting to ambush his dad.

Connor standing on his stool, fingers in mouth, watching everything that's going on.

Josh and Jordan got new scooters they were excited about.

Sydney even got a sweater from Grammy. It kept her a little warmer!

Getting ready for Christmas

The boys got to go to the mall with their cousins to see Santa. Every time I asked Josh what he wanted for Christmas he told me something different. It seemed to change by the minute. I guess it turned out ok because he didn't really have his heart set on any one thing and was happy with what he got.

Josh also got to see Santa at a party at the church. This was his first visit with Santa and he was nervous. He decided to be brave and was determined to let Santa know what he wanted.

I had lots of help putting the Christmas tree up!

The grin on this face shows how thrilled he is that there are boxes of Christmas stuff for him to get into. He is always into everything! We were in a waiting room somewhere and there were a ton of toys for the kids to play with. Connor wasn't interested in the toys. Instead he was getting into a baby carrier belonging to a stranger, playing with the lock on the door, and then marched into an office to see what was behind the desk. He's going to give me a run for my money. Some day I will have a beautiful Christmas tree, but I do not expect that to happen for years. It started out looking pretty nice until I kept moving decorations higher and higher out of Connor's reach. It wasn't long before only the top half was decorated. Josh kept finding ornaments that he really liked and carried them around the house. I found ornaments strung everywhere. Both boys pulled on the lights until they were on the floor. This picture was taken when Josh came and told me "I didn't mean to do it." I asked him what he did, and he told me me he bent the top of the tree. I asked him how in the world he managed to bend the top of the tree. He shook the tree, of course, until the star on the top fell over.

I still haven't figured out why under the tree is the optimal place to relax.

Connor is happy with the dump truck, though he has gotten creative with his uses for it.

Josh had so much fun at a family Christmas party making a candy train.

Connor started doing this cheesy grin that cracks us up. With a grin like this, who would believe how mischievous he is and what a little stinker he has become during church. He is my little explorer and does not sit still for a minute unless he's strapped down to his chair! I can't believe he is already 16 months old!

Let it snow!

I don't know where the past three months have gone. I can't believe it is now January. My blog has been neglected more than it usually is and now I am going to try to catch up and do a few posts over the next week or so.

When it snows, I'm not sure if Josh or Gary gets more excited. Josh absolutely loves playing in the snow. Gary has just as much fun as Josh does. Connor has only been in it once so far, and not for long since he's still small. He seemed to enjoy a little ride on the sled and really liked being outside despite the cold.

Connor looks so cute in his beanie!

Gary bought Josh a sled and Sydney a harness and rigged it so she can pull Josh around on the sled. It's pretty entertaining to watch and about the only way I know of to wear that dog out. She has so much energy it is good for her and Josh has so much fun.

One morning we woke up to two feet of snow outside. It took forever to shovel the sidewalks and driveway.

He can't hardly move all bundled up, but is so cute wandering around like that.

Josh wanted to make a snowman and I found it was easier to roll the giant snowball down the side walk to clear the walk than it was to shovel. The snowball got a little too big though and I had to have help getting it off the sidewalk. That was as far as we got on our snowman.

Halloween

This year Josh was really excited about Halloween. He asked me just about every day for a month when it was going to be time for Halloween. He was excited to carve pumpkins and even helped a little more than he has before.

Josh changed his mind about his costume several times before he saw a triceratops costume that he just had to have. He said that Connor was a stegosaurus, so I had two cute little dinosaurs. Josh named both the pumpkins we carved Charlie Brown and the smallest one Logan after his friend. I'm not sure if that's an honor or an insult to his friend!

Connor seemed to enjoy carving pumpkins too, except when his dad covered him in pumpkin guts. He didn't appreciate that too much, but insisted on sitting on my lap while I carved a pumpkin.

Goodbye Summer

I really don't know what happened to the summer. It went by so fast and I can't believe the weather is cooling down already. I realized there are a lot of pictures from the summer I haven't posted so here they are. Some of this is kind of random! For this being our first year doing a garden, I think we did pretty good. I learned not to ignore the squash or zucchini for very long, or this is what happens. I think I picked about 6 zucchini, 7 or 8 yellow squash, and all those green beans in one day. I was able to can the green beans, but some of the rest of that had to be given to neighbors or fed to the neighbors pigs! Next year I will only do one plant each of squash and zucchini instead of 2!

I am not sure how this zucchini managed to grow unnoticed for so long, but this one was huge. It weighed pretty close to what Connor weighs. Something of this size I thought should go to Manookin's newest pig, who I call Big Daddy (don't know what they call him) and is in the picture below. The pig is huge so we went out to the farm and Josh got to give him the huge zucchini and we helped feed the pigs.

He seemed to enjoy being in the pig pen with the little pigs.

I was outside one day doing some yard work or something when Gary came home from somewhere. I thought it was pretty funny that Sydney and Josh seemed equally happy to see him since they both ran up to the door of the car to greet him.

Sydney jumped right through the window, so Josh had to get in the car too. Sydney loves going places in the car.

One nice thing about summer is being able to give the dog a bath outside! I end up almost as wet as her.

This is Josh and his friend Logan. I think they must be getting excited for Halloween or something. Logan lives a couple houses down and they have been pals all summer long. It has been wonderful for Josh to have someone to play with that lives so close. They get along great. Logan's parents just put their house up for sale though, and I'm not sure if I was more disappointed or if Josh was. Josh wants to sale our house now so we can move with them and still be neighbors.

Josh recently acquired a pillow pet (thanks Grammy!!) that he's become attached to. He and Connor each have one that they trade around. It has begun to accompany him where ever he goes and he even buckles it up in the car.

Over the past couple months, Connor has acquired some new hobbies. One of them is spending time with the dog. He seems to like to sit next to the dog whether we've got the door open to the screen or whether it is closed. Connor seems to like to visit Sydney and sometimes chat with her.

Josh figured out how to hang on to Connor's fingers and help him walk around the house. They both think it is great fun. Connor loves to walk around with help. He took his first steps a few days after his birthday and is getting better and better at taking steps. He'll let go of furniture and take a few steps to me without hanging on to anything and will giggle as he does it. He thinks walking is great fun.

Connor loves to get in my Tupperware cupboard. He's so small that he fits a little too perfectly inside. At night when I go to bed sometimes I think about what a great job he does setting booby traps around my house. There seems to always be a pile of Tupperware on the kitchen floor, and all sorts of goo accumulated on the floor around his high chair. Then there are various piles of toys strewn about the front room and other areas of the house. I can't seem to keep up with him and at the end of the day when I'm too tired to clean it all up, I think to myself that if anyone ever tries breaking into this house I feel sorry for them. Between Connor's booby traps and the Marine I sleep next to, a robber just would not stand a chance.

Connor thinks it is quite amusing to pull the wipes out one by one. He knows how to open the container, and did it several times before I finally started to remember to put the wipes away after diaper changes. I have to be equally careful with boxes of tissue because he does the same thing with that too.

Josh started preschool a little over a month ago at the elementary school. It's twice a week for 2 1/2 hours and since we live in a title 1 area, it is free! Josh never lets Connor near the whiteboard (which is good because of the markers) but one morning while Josh was gone, Connor had this grin on his face that just told me he thought it was great that he was finally finding opportunities to get into his brother's stuff while Josh is at school.

One Year Old!

Friday was Connor's first birthday. I can't believe he's already one year old. It went by so fast for me!

Waiting for his cake.

Josh was able to light the cake all by himself (I keep the lighter hidden for good reason).

Connor got his own personal cake to destroy but this was his other cake. It's supposed to be fish in the ocean. Josh had fun helping decorate the cake. Josh was more than happy to help Connor out.

Connor was a little hesitant to put his hand in the cake to begin with, which surprised me. Whenever I feed him he's always trying to put his hand in the cereal or baby food and then he smears it everywhere. He complains every time I get out the wash cloth to wipe him down and doesn't mind being messy a bit. Once he got into the cake he really seemed to enjoy it!

Even Sydney got a taste of the cake. She normally doesn't get to come in and clean up after Connor, but since I was going to have to mop the floor anyway I figured she could join the celebration.

We met Gary at his work for dinner and to feed the ducks and open presents. I wasn't really sure what else to do for the birthday boy since he's not old enough to really care.

We seriously made it about two steps away from the parking lot before the ducks approached us for food. We didn't even go to the edge of the pond, which I guess is a good thing considering Josh nearly fell in last time. There were a few ducks that were not at all scared of us and were eating out of Josh's hand, nibbling on his fingers and of course he didn't even care. One duck kept grabbing full pieces of bread out of his hand and then would run off with it so the other ducks wouldn't get it. They were just like puppies and would jump up trying to get the bread from Josh. It was so funny to watch.

Connor had to be put out of the reach of the ducks. Gary was holding him and one duck jumped up and nibbled on Connor's toe. It didn't seem to bother him, but we didn't want to traumatize him on his birthday.

Pictures Re-done

We had our family pictures done over since I didn't really like the other one that was taken. Connor was cranky the first time and they turned out much better the second time around!